In recent years, it has become desirable for radio transceiver devices, such as cellular telephones, to be able to communicate over multiple bands of the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This has arisen because different countries tend to use different frequency bands for cellular networks. For example, US WCDMA is at 850 MHz whereas EU WCDMA is at 2100 MHz. Even in a single country, different services may be provided at different radio frequency bands, for example, PCS is at 1900 MHz whereas PCN is at 1800 MHz. Consequently, cellular telephones require multi-band antenna arrangements that can allow them to communicate over multiple bands of the radio portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Increasingly, multi-band antenna arrangements are using more than one antenna element to transmit and receive electromagnetic waves. Currently, each ‘active’ antenna element within such an antenna arrangement requires its own tuning circuit so that it may operate in a desired set of operational frequency bands. However, each tuning circuit requires space within the radio transceiver device and has a fiscal cost associated with it. Consequently, multi-band antenna arrangements are becoming increasingly large and expensive.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an alternative antenna arrangement.